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TORONTO — The Dodgers have forced a Game 7 in the World Series.

And Shohei Ohtani is expected to be their starting pitcher.

In what will be just four days removed from his six-plus-inning, 93-pitch start in Game 4 of this World Series, Ohtani will likely serve as the team’s opener in Saturday’s winner-take-all contest, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.

While Ohtani almost certainly won’t make a full-length start, he should be able to get through at least two or three innings (depending on how laborious his outing is). Four or five innings might not be out of the question, either, even in what will be only his second career MLB outing pitching on three days’ rest.

The only time Ohtani did so was in 2023, when he followed a rain-shortened two-inning start at Fenway Park against the Red Sox with a seven-inning outing four days later.

Saturday, of course, will come under entirely different circumstances, in what will be the first seventh game in a World Series since 2019.

By starting Ohtani, the Dodgers would ensure they wouldn’t lose his bat for the rest of the game, thanks to MLB’s two-way rules. If he were to enter in relief during the game, the only way he could stay in afterward is if he shifted to the outfield (since MLB’s rules stipulate that a team would lose the DH spot under such circumstances). Starting him also eliminates any complications that would come with trying to find him time to warm up if his spot in the batting order arose the inning prior — something that would have made it potentially more difficult for him to be able to close out the game.

Ohtani has completed six innings in each of his three previous pitching appearances this postseason, with a 3.50 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 18 innings.

The Dodgers should have options behind Ohtani. Tyler Glasnow will likely be available after needing just three pitches to get the save in Friday’s wild finish. Blake Snell also said he would be available after his Game 5 start on Wednesday.

In the bullpen, Roki Sasaki figures to be at manager Dave Roberts’ disposal, as well, despite throwing 33 pitches in one-plus inning of work on Friday.

Roberts said everyone short of Game 6 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be available.

These are dark times, the average cynic might argue.

But do not despair.

If you focus on the positive, rather than the negative, you’ll have to agree that the United States of America is on top and still climbing.

Yes, protesters gathered Thursday outside “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in Hollywood to denounce ABC’s suspension of the host and President Trump’s threat to revoke licenses from networks that criticize him, despite repeated vows by Trump and top deputies to defend free speech.

You can call it hypocrisy.

I call it moxie.

And by the way, demonstrators were not arrested or deported, and the National Guard was not summoned (as far as I know).

Do you see what I mean? Just tilt your head back a bit, and you can see sunshine breaking through the clouds.

Let’s take the president’s complaint that he read “someplace” that the networks “were 97% against me.” Some might see weakness in that, or thin skin. Others might wonder where the “someplace” was that the president discovered his TV news favorability rating stands at 3%, given that he could get caught drowning puppies and cheating at golf and still get fawning coverage from at least one major network.

But Trump had good reason to be grumpy. He was returning from a news conference in London, where he confused Albania and Armenia and fumbled the pronunciation of Azerbaijan, which sounded a bit more like Abracadabra.

It’s not his fault all those countries all start with an A. And isn’t there a geography lesson in it for all of us, if not a history lesson?

We move on now to American healthcare, and the many promising developments under way in the nation’s capital, thanks to Trump’s inspired choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as chief of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Those who see the glass half empty would argue that Kennedy has turned the department into a morgue, attempting to kill COVID-19 vaccine research, espousing backwater views about measles, firing public health experts, demoralizing the remaining staff and rejecting decades worth of biomedical advances despite having no medical training or expertise.

But on the plus side, Kennedy is going after food dyes.

It’s about time, and thank you very much.

I’m not sure what else will be left in a box of Trix or Lucky Charms when food coloring is removed, but I am opposed to fake food coloring, unless it’s in a cocktail, and I’d like to think most Americans are with me on this.

Also on the bright side: Kennedy is encouraging Americans to do chin-ups and pushups for better health.

Are you going to sit on the radical left side of your sofa and gripe about what’s happened to your country, or get with the program and try to do a few pushups?

OK, so Trump’s efforts to shut down the war on cancer is a little scary. As the New York Times reported, on the chopping block is development of a new technique for colorectal cancer prevention, research into immunotherapy cancer prevention, a study on improving childhood cancer survival rates, and better analysis of pre-malignant breast tissue in high-risk women.

But that could all be fake news, or 97% of it, at least. And if it’s not?

All that research and all those doctors and scientists can apply for jobs in other countries, just like all the climate scientists whose work is no longer a national priority. The more who leave, the better, because the brain drain is going to free up a lot of real estate and help solve the housing crisis.

Thank you, President Trump.

Is it any wonder that Trump has been seen recently wearing a MAGA-red hat that says “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!”

Well, mostly everything.

Climate change appears to be real.

The war in Ukraine didn’t end as promised.

The war in the Middle East is still raging.

Grocery prices did not go down on day one, and some goods cost more because of tariffs.

As for the promise of a new age of American prosperity, there’s no rainbow in sight yet, although there is a pot of gold in the White House, with estimates of billions in profits for Trump family businesses since he took office,

But for all of that, along with an approval rating that has dropped since he took office in January, Trump exudes confidence. So much so that he proudly wears that bright red hat, which he was giving out in the Oval office, and which retails for $25.

It’s another ingenious economic stimulation plan.

And there’s an important lesson here for all of us.

Never admit defeat, and when things don’t go your way, stand tall, adjust your hat, and find someone to blame.

We should all have our own hats made.

Doctors could wear hats saying they’ve never gotten a diagnosis wrong.

Dentists could wear hats saying they’ve never pulled the wrong tooth.

TV meteorologists could wear hats saying — well, maybe not — that they’ve gotten every forecast right.

I’m having hats made as you read this.

LOPEZ IS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Please don’t have me fired, Mr. President, if you disagree.

As for Jimmy Kimmel, I’m offering this idea free of charge:

If you ever get your job back, you, your sidekick Guillermo, and the entire studio audience should be wearing hats.

KIMMEL WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!

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The most-followed professional sports league on Earth is increasingly an American one, but it’s not the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball. Despite their impressive strides in growing global audiences and reach, homegrown U.S. sports aren’t the world’s biggest draw. Instead, American teams are buying into the world’s most popular sport — the other football — via the global all-star English Premier League.

The Premier League kicked off its 2025-2026 season Aug. 15 with 11 of its 20 clubs under U.S. ownership (only four teams in the league are British-owned. It promises to be a crackling season.

Will thrice runners-up Arsenal (which shares owners with the Los Angeles Rams) be able to dethrone Liverpool (owned by the Red Sox’s Fenway Sports Group)? Will heavy spenders Chelsea (which shares owners with the Dodgers and the Lakers) once again vie for the league title, fresh off its improbable FIFA Club World Cup win this summer? And will San Francisco 49ers-owned Leeds United gain a permanent foothold in the league after being promoted from the lower division last season?

Perhaps the most compelling Premier League storyline is the fast-accelerating American takeover of soccer/football and what it tells us about the globalization of American culture. Suddenly, Americans are far more connected to the rest of the world than previous generations were, thanks to sport, our age’s leading pastime and most important form of media.

When I first moved to the United States as a teenager in the 1980s, Americans didn’t play much with others. We had our sports and proclaimed the winners in our domestic leagues “world champions.” Sport was the exception to the rule that all things American were the world’s cultural lingua franca. Indeed, as a result of the great 19th century footballing schism, the U.S. is the only major country where the stars of our most popular sports leagues never get to represent their country in international competition.

Tom Brady never got to wear a Team USA jersey because, well, only other Americans play his kind of football. Moreover, although a Hollywood blockbuster might make three-quarters of its box office outside the U.S., and Taylor Swift scheduled two-thirds of her Eras Tour in nations other than America, our biggest sporting production — the Super Bowl — is still watched by far more people inside the U.S. than outside it.

Yet things have changed dramatically over the past generation. It used to be common to hear sports pundits and American politicians (especially conservative ones) vilify soccer with the same xenophobic fervor reserved for such dastardly foreign schemes as the metric system and socialism. But now our “America First” President Trump is fast friends with FIFA’s leader Gianni Infantino, and Trump’s enthusiasm for the recent Club World Cup was such that he famously overstayed his welcome on stage during Chelsea’s post-match celebrations last month at MetLife Stadium.

We can thank the girls and women of America, and Title IX, for putting an end to America’s sporting isolationism, along with immigrants, who were often the first to introduce the sport across American communities, and the marketing departments and aspirations of multinational corporations.

Coca-Cola was FIFA’s first global sponsor not because it was already a powerful American company, but because FIFA could help push the brand to every corner of the world. Electronic Arts could have simply created its Madden video game for NFL aficionados, but it was its FIFA game that made it a global player (and in turn helped popularize the sport among millions of American kids).

In 2026, the men’s World Cup, which the United States will co-host with Mexico and Canada, will further ratify the end of America’s sporting isolationism. Ours is now a nation where soccer practice is a staple of most kids’ lives, the game’s best player ever joined our top domestic league (which didn’t exist until 1996), and we can watch every other league on the planet. Thanks to NBC’s masterful coverage, England’s Premier League is as avidly followed in this country as many of our domestic leagues.

It wasn’t that long ago that I could wear my Arsenal sweatshirt out and about without eliciting much of a response, but no more. A couple of seasons ago in Phoenix, I had taped a midday match to watch after work and was scrupulously avoiding any source of spoilers. Then I ran into my gym for a quick workout wearing my Arsenal cap.

“Tough loss,” the guy at the front desk said.

I guess so, but an oddly satisfying spoiler too, for what it represented.

Andrés Martinez is the co-director of the Great Game Lab at Arizona State University, a fellow at New America and author of the forthcoming book, “The Great Game: A Tale of Two Footballs and America’s Quest to Conquer Global Sport.”

Emmy season, we hardly knew ya!

Our last issue of the 2025 cycle is now out in the world, which means it’s time for this editor to switch from binge-watching TV at home to seeing movies in one of L.A.’s many frigid screening rooms. (Not a bad way to get through the dog days of summer, honestly.)

But before I return you to the newsletter’s regularly scheduled programming, here’s a look at some highlights from our Aug. 19 issue. Catch you in November when we open the first Envelope of Oscar season!

Digital cover story: Michelle Williams

(JSquared Photography / For the Times)

As heavy as its subject matter may be, “Dying for Sex” is the only series this season that actually left me doubled over in laughter.

My reaction stemmed from a moment early on in FX’s limited series where Molly, the kinky cancer patient at the core of the story, stumbles into a ransomware trap online. As played with slapstick brilliance by Michelle Williams, she leaps out of her laptop camera’s sight line as though it had metamorphosed into a dangerous animal — a scenario that only gets funnier when she’s joined on the floor by her friend and caretaker, Nikki (Jenny Slate).

As Williams, Emmy-nominated for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie, tells contributor Lorena O’Neil in this week’s digital cover story, those who suggest she’s only interested in serious fare are mistaken. “Dying” in particular required a sense of humor, Williams reveals: “My best friend recently lost another of her best friends to cancer, and she would tell me about the conversations they would have cheek to cheek lying in a hospital bed and how in those moments they found the thing to point at and laugh about, so [the series] felt very true to me.”

TV’s watercooler woman

Carrie Coon in “The White Lotus.”

(HBO)

Anytime I’ve seen complaints on social media about this summer’s “TV tumbleweeds,” I have thought to myself: “They must not be watching ‘The Gilded Age.’”

HBO’s delicious portrait of conniving old- and new-money New Yorkers in the late 19th century has ripened over three seasons into a reliably entertaining (if politically suspect) melodrama, thanks in no small part to Carrie Coon’s unabashedly ambitious society wife, Bertha Russell. Her cunning machinations, which this season included foisting a British duke on her reluctant daughter, have helped turn the series into a hit. Which also makes Coon responsible for not one but two watercooler successes in 2025 alone.

In her recent interview with contributor Gregory Ellwood, the (too modest) actor credits “White Lotus” co-stars Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb for her character’s final-episode monologue becoming a viral sensation this spring. (It also likely clinched her Emmy nomination for supporting actress in a drama.) But having followed Coon since Season 1, Episode 6, of “The Leftovers,” I’m comfortable saying she probably played some part in earning those big moments. You don’t capture buzz on two shows in a row by pure chance.

Words to live by

Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma in “Andor.”

(Lucasfilm Ltd.)

The stirring speech Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) delivers to the Galactic Senate in “Andor” isn’t just the culmination of the series’ long-gestating political plotline, the moment at which the senator throws in her lot once and for all with the Rebellion — at grave risk to her life.

It is also, thanks to the careful work of Emmy-nominated writer Dan Gilroy, a memorable piece of oration in its own right, drawing on real-life examples such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi to give a major turning point in the “Star Wars” universe genuine historical weight.

Gilroy joined me via Zoom recently to annotate the speech, from its unassuming opening line to its pointed use of the word “genocide.”

Read more from our Aug. 19 issue

The addition of girls flag football is helping fuel rising participation in high school sports nationally, with a record 8,260,891 boys and girls having participated in the last school year, according to the annual survey from the National Federation of State High School Assns. released on Monday.

There were 68,847 girls playing flag football, a 60% increase from the previous year.

Girls sports led the increases, including wrestling rising 15%.

Football remains the most popular boys sports at 1,001,039. Track and field tops girls sports at 513,808.

Girls flag football has been rising in popularity in Southern California. In the Los Angeles City Section, there are now more flag football teams (91) than 11-man football teams (71).

Angelenos love croissants. In recent years the obsession has reached a fever pitch, thanks to new bakeries that have followed in the footsteps of lauded croissant-makers like Proof Bakery and the erstwhile Konbi.

Trendy croissant hybrids have also helped fuel the pastry’s resurgence, including the Cronut, Cruffin and Crookie, as well as viral shapes like cubes and spirals. And while the classic French version has frequently been at the center of L.A.’s croissant craze, in 2025 local bakers are turning to global flavors — reinterpreting the flaky, buttery icon through the lens of their own heritage and childhood memories.

Pastry chef Sharon Wang, owner of Sugarbloom Bakery in Glassell Park, purposely sought to challenge her classic European training when creating her signature kimchi Spam musubi croissant. “The idea came from the diversity of L.A. and also a rebellion against working for an organization that favors only European ingredients,” she says.

In Victor Heights, Bakers Bench chef-owner Jennifer Yee uses the croissant to reinterpret a beloved generational recipe. “The egg roll croissant is something I’m really proud of,” she says. “My paternal parents owned a Chinese restaurant in Columbus, Ohio and they were known for their egg rolls,” says Yee. “It tastes very nostalgic if you grew up in the Midwest eating Chinese American food.”

And that’s just the beginning. In Silver Lake, you’ll find a Cuban bakery with Cubano sandwich-inspired croissants that pay homage to neighborhood history. In Pasadena, one baker is infusing her Persian heritage into a viral croissant shape. From Korean to Argentine-inspired creations, the croissant has become a new creative canvas among local pastry chefs. Here are eight bakeries with globally inspired croissants to try in L.A.